Shared Sacrifice

[FORD]

Dear Mr. President,

This is a pivotal moment in the history of our country. Decisions are being made about the national budget that will impact the lives of virtually every American for decades to come. As we address the issue of deficit reduction we must not ignore the painful economic reality of today - which is that the wealthiest people in our country and the largest corporations are doing phenomenally well while the middle class is collapsing and poverty is increasing. In fact, the United States today has, by far, the most unequal distribution of wealth and income of any major country on earth.

Everyone understands that over the long-term we have got to reduce the deficit - a deficit that was caused mainly by Wall Street greed, tax breaks for the rich, two wars, and a prescription drug program written by the drug and insurance companies. It is absolutely imperative, however, that as we go forward with deficit reduction we completely reject the Republican approach that demands savage cuts in desperately-needed programs for working families, the elderly, the sick, our children and the poor, while not asking the wealthiest among us to contribute one penny.

Mr. President, please listen to the overwhelming majority of the American people who believe that deficit reduction must be about shared sacrifice. The wealthiest Americans and the most profitable corporations in this country must pay their fair share. At least 50 percent of any deficit reduction package must come from revenue raised by ending tax breaks for the wealthy and eliminating tax loopholes that benefit large, profitable corporations and Wall Street financial institutions. A sensible deficit reduction package must also include significant cuts to unnecessary and wasteful Pentagon spending.

Please do not yield to outrageous Republican demands that would greatly increase suffering for the weakest and most vulnerable members of our society. Now is the time to stand with the tens of millions of Americans who are struggling to survive economically, not with the millionaires and billionaires who have never had it so good.

Respectfully,


Sen. Bernie Sanders;
and Co-signers

Add your name to Bernie's letter here (http://sanders.senate.gov/petition/?uid=c1fd7f9b-abd8-4e7a-a370-1867881259d8)

[Nitro Express]

One of our neighbors when I was growing up was a holocaust survivor. Her family no longer claimed to be Jewish and even adopted another Christian religion. Her father was a highly decorated World War I veteran. Then things started to change. The whole group think of the society she lived in changed and friends became people who hated you over night because it became fashionable to do so. I will never forget what she told us and that was how fast things changed for the worse.

Before the Patriot Act everyone was innocent until proven guilty and everyone had the right to a PUBLIC trial. Not anymore. Anyone can be a terrorist now and you can be arrested and held indefinitely without a trial of any kind. Amazingly I would not think the American public would stand to have that taken away but now it's gone. Look at how easily it went and nobody seemed to care. People just thought they would go after some islamic terrorists and leave us alone. Now old people and children get treated like terrorists at the airport. George Washington once said Government is power period. It's not reason, it's dangerous, and it must be handled carefully.

The real problem is we have let government go unchecked for too long. One thing we need to do is make the government fair to everyone. Unless we do this the government will never be able to regulate anything so in order to assure real free markets. One of the key purposes of government is to protect the free market but when the government gets bought by the robber barons so to speak the government becomes a thug that enforces corporate rule and this is fascism. We need to break the fascism by going back to the constitutional standard of we the people and not we the corporations.

We desperately need campaign reform. There should be rules that only registered voters can give campaign contrabutions and not businesses or corporations. We also need price caps on the amount an individual can donate. Without this the big money buys the political system and once that happens, regulation becomes destroying our competition or creating an artificial demand for yourself. We need representatives that represent the people and not a few oligarchs.

Where the real reform needs to happen is the process of how we elect politicians and finance their campaigns.

[Seshmeister]

George Washington once said Government is power period.




With Michelle Bachmann as president it will be power PMS.